suggestion for Iran’s new official slogan: “minor discomfort to America”
As Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, steers the country away from its confrontational posture toward the West, he is inevitably calling into question the bedrock anti-American ideology of the Islamic republic. That is turning the revolution’s leading slogan, “Death to America,†into a political battleground.
“These three words are the blood of our ideology,†said one of those leaving Friday Prayer, Mohammad Jahanbi.
Urm.
He said he had been a political prisoner during the reign of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and was a veteran of the bloody eight-year war with Iraq. “We must hold on to ‘Death to America’; otherwise, our revolution will be lost.â€
Sometimes Revolutions need to shift into its bureaucracy management stage.  They need something less hardline than “Death to America”.  I don’t know… how about… “Minor Discomfort to America”?
The issue gained prominence recently when the personal Web site of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a pragmatist who is close to the new government, published his older memoirs. Mr. Rafsanjani had indicated that the founder of the Islamic republic, his mentor and revolutionary comrade Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, had once hinted that “Death to America†could be eliminated if the conditions were right, just as relations could be re-established, if needed.
Mr. Rafsanjani was immediately attacked in hard-line newspapers, and state-run television broadcast a long program countering his claims, accusing “some†of insinuating the idea of duality in the stances of Ayatollah Khomeini. Mr. Rafsanjani issued an apology.
“Some are saying”. Â Classic passive voice avoidance.
After all, some have said, “Death to America†could be eliminated from the revolutionary discourse just as surely as “Death to the Soviet Union†was a generation ago.
Theoretically, Â “Death to the Soviet Union” would be their ideal precedent. Â Unless the purpose is the intonation of the phrase in and of itself, in which case… they could get by with it no matter what the shifts in relations with America happen to be.
Mr. Rouhani’s government has announced that it wants to conduct a public opinion survey on the advisability of its outreach to the United States. But it is unclear if this will happen, analysts say, because it would lay bare the ideological divisions in the Islamic republic.
A similar poll conducted in 2003 showed that 70 percent favored establishing ties with America. There was no follow-up, though, because the pollsters were jailed for several years.
Hm.  Lest ye think “Well, that was Ahmadinejad” — my first thought — no… actually it would be Mohammad Khatami, the reformist who was later the candidate backed by the “Green Revolution” struggle.
In the Islamic republic, support of “the people†is often cited by all factions.
Yeah, just like the United States. Â And everywhere. Â With that sprinkling of “Real America”, even if it doesn’t correspond to “The People” as a whole.
But with the animosity toward the United States, things can get complicated.Â
An older man, wearing a black skullcap, a sign that he had been on the pilgrimage to Mecca, dragged a plastic poster showing Mr. Obama decorated with Stars of David and the word “oppressor.†As he was about to throw it on the fire, one of the young organizers of the demonstration stopped him.
“Don’t burn this,†he said. “We paid for this poster with public money. We need to use it for a very long time to come.â€
No. Â Only a few more years. Â But by then the chant will change to something else.
Rouhani’s political mentor, former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, said that the familiar slogan should no longer be chanted at events such as Friday prayers at Tehran University.
In a speech Tuesday, Rafsanjani repeatedly was interrupted by opponents bellowing anti-American chants.
It doesn’t say if they picked up on my “Minor Discomfort to America” suggestion.